SANAA, 27 March 2007 — A French student was killed in an attack by rebel fighters on an Islamic studies institute in northern Yemen yesterday, police officials said.
The officials said the student was among a group of foreign and Yemeni students when rebels loyal to an outlawed armed group attacked them near the Dammaj Institute for Islamic Studies in the northern province of Saada.
Another Yemeni student was also killed in the attack that left a dozen Yemeni students injured, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Officials of the French Embassy in Sanaa refused to comment on the attack.
The Defense Ministry issued a statement saying that “terrorist elements attacked a group of students of the Dammaj institute,” in the restive province of Saada.
“Two students, a Yemeni and a French national, who was attending an Arabic language class at the institute, were killed,” the statement posted on the ministry’s website said.
It said the attack took place as the students were walking on a road near the Dammaj Institute for Islamic Studies in Saada, some 230 km north of Sanaa.
Saada has been the scene of fierce battles between the army and members of the outlawed Shiite group Believing Youth since last December.
Students of different nationalities, including Westerners, attend the institute for Islamic studies or Arabic language classes.
Fierce battles broke out between the army and rebels acting under the umbrella of the underground Believing Youth late last December after authorities accused rebels of attacking military and police posts in Saada. The group was first established by radical cleric Hussein Badruddin Al-Houthi in mid-2004. Hussein was killed in clashes with the army in September 2004.
Bloody confrontations between the rebels and the army have since left more than 720 government troops dead, according to the official toll. Hundreds of rebels have also been killed.
Government officials have accused the rebels, led by local rebel leader Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi, of trying to topple the republican regime and establish an Islamic state, saying that “foreign parties” have been supporting them.
21 Die in Flash Floods
At least 21 people were killed after flash floods and lightning hit their houses in three Yemeni provinces during the past three days, police sources said yesterday.
The sources said floods triggered by heavy rain left 15 people dead in the eastern province of Hadhramout. In the central province of Ibb, a man, a woman and a child were killed after floods lashed their areas, police said. Three people were killed by lightning in mountainous areas in the western province of Mahweet.
Floods also destroyed dozens of homes, farms and roads in the three provinces and other southern and eastern provinces which received heavy rain in recent days.
